C.S. Lewis

by Margaret P. Hannay

Readers over the world delight in the Narnia tales, the adult novels, and the sparkling Christian apologetics of C. S. Lewis. His literary criticism continues to provoke and enlighten. Here now is an excellent map of Lewis' two his life and his imagination. In an appealing style unhampered by academic jargon, Hannay - a biographical sketch of a man haunted by longing--a man who progressed from arrogant dogmatism to gentleness; - concise summaries of each of the major works, including tantalizing quotations to entice the reader back to the original; - a survey of the major themes throughout his writing, which connect works as seemingly different from each other as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Screwtape Letters, and A Preface to Paradise Lost; - an analysis of his literary technique involving his allusive and compelling style.

299 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Dr. Margaret Hannay was a scholar of early modern English literature and a longtime professor of English at Siena College, where she taught Elizabethan literature, Shakespeare, and Great Books courses and served as department chair. Her research focused especially on the Sidney family, Mary Sidney, and Lady Mary Wroth. She published numerous articles and seventeen books, including major collaborative editions of Sidney family writings with Noel Kinnamon and Michael Brennan. A founder and president of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, she also led the International Sidney Society and received multiple lifetime achievement awards.

Reviews

[Brenton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret P. Hannay was a strong scholar who wrote in clear, vivid prose. This book combines a survey and description of C.S. Lewis' diverse writings followed by an essay about individual or clusters of books. The essays are brief, smart, and generally on point. There are very few footnotes or references, which I found a bit frustrating.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A critical introduction to Lewis' work that overviews and comments on his most popularly recognized work--the apologetics and Chronicles of Narnia--as well as his adult fiction, poems, stories, letters, and his own literary criticism. Very readable, and valuable as a reference work. I would recommend this work to anyone interested in being able to appreciate any single work by C.S. Lewis in the full context of his life and development as a scholar and Christian.

A favorite selection:

...Peter Schakel suggests that while the stories contain some elements of allegory, like the death and resurrection of Aslan, they are not themselves allegorical: "The Christian meaning is deeper and more subtle than the term allegory permits...When the Chronicles are at their best, they do not just convey Christian meanings intellectually, but communicate directly to the imagination and the emotions a sizable share of the central elements of the Christian faith."

...[Lewis] agrees with the aesthetic tradition that art should teach by delighting, by making the reader enchanted with an ideal. Emotions should be evoked in order to develop the imagination, so that the person can conceive of a higher level of existence. "Imagination exists for the sake of wisdom or spiritual health--the rightness and richness of a man's total response to the world." The correct responses to life...are not innate; they must be carefully taught. Therefore the older poetry, like that of Milton and Spenser, constantly insisted on certain themes--"Love is sweet, death bitter, virtue lovely..."

[Joel Zartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Wipf & Stock reprint of classic scholarship, originally from 1981.

The book consists of summaries of all the published works of C.S. Lewis along with insightful explanation, commentary, and evaluation. The summaries are grouped in a series of chapters: Narnia, adult fiction, literary criticism, apologetics. They are competent and for the most part thorough.

Her observations and explanations are sensible and obviously worth keeping in the pool of Lewis scholarship. The book also comes with a useful index and an of course dated bibliography. Those old bibliographies are good for insuring that useful books whose circulation diminishes over time can still be remembered.

I would say that Hannay is a bit more squeamish about Lewis's lack of feminism than necessary. Also she believes the whole thing with the brown girls is racist, which stands out because she is not otherwise given to hostile evaluations. Because the book is forty years old, it doesn't exhibit much of the more contemporary concern with Lewis's sources, which makes it seems a little empty and basic. It is meant as an introduction to Lewis, and it is a good one.

There is a spectrum on which scholarship on C.S. Lewis appears. The strictly appreciative scholarship of Green, and Walsh, and Hooper is very welcome if somewhat nostalgic. Close to them, but more scrupulously evaluative is Harry Poe's recent work. Still on that side of the spectrum but more probing and skeptical of some of Lewis's positions I would place Alan Jacobs. Hannay is in this more detached and tinged with a few dubious academic concerns but still warmly appreciative territory. And the value of an older work is that the dubious is more obvious.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay though rather dull for a while, but then around the 100 page mark it took a turn for the worse. I gave up at that point. It became a feminist commentary on C.S. Lewis and his work and I lost interest.
The author felt the need to point out that "C.S. Lewis views God as masculine". Shocking!

At least it was very clear that it was time, so thanks to the author for that.